Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Elmar 3.5cm f/3.5

Ernst Leitz · LTM · 1930 · Four elements in three groups

Also known as: Leitz Elmar 35mm f/3.5 · Elmar 3.5cm f3.5 · EKURZ

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Nickel LTM 1930–1933 160001–161000 (1933)
171001–172000 (1933)
236101–237000, 251501–253000 and 270005–272000 (1935, blocks shared with chrome) 		Listed as EKURZUP in the code names
Chrome LTM 1933–1950 182001–183000 (1933)
215001–216000 and 225001–226000 (1934)
297001–298000, 332051–333000 and 337001–338000 (1936)
400001–402000 (1937)
492101–495000 (1938)
570001–571000 (1941)
605001–606000 (1946)
652001–655000 (1948)
693001–696000 (1948) 		EKURZCHROM; the bulk of 46,747+ lenses
11 o'clock and 7 o'clock infinity locks LTM 1930–1950 — No figures
Military marked LTM 1939–1945 555501–556000 (1940, Luftwaffen)
557001–558000 (1940, SS) 		No figures published
  1. A military-marked example carries a documented delivery record as well as an engraving. Lot 58 of Leitz Photographica Auction 7 — serial 555686, made 1940, engraved Luftwaffen-Eigentum and sold with a photocopy of the Leitz salesbook entry recording delivery to Luftw. Bln 19481 on 19 November 1940 — realised €2,400 including buyer's premium against an estimate of €1,500–1,800.
  2. The serial table does not begin at a serial number. Its first two rows read "-963 / 146775-" and "-149910 / 155123-", both with unknown totals, and cover 1930 to 1932 — so the earliest 3.5cm Elmars are acknowledged and never enumerated. The TOTAL row's stated span of 1933–1941 covers neither them nor the 1946–1948 blocks the same table lists.
  3. Two rows carry transcription errors rather than facts: 297001–298000 is printed as "Weitwinkel 3.5cm 1:3.3", and 492101–495000 spans 2,900 numbers against a stated total of 2,000.
  4. Nothing in the serial table distinguishes the 11 o'clock infinity lock from the 7 o'clock one. That change is described in the page's prose and left out of the numbers entirely, so a lens cannot be placed on either side of it by its serial.
  5. The Leica Wiki's serial table (read in the browser, 2026-09-10): assigned blocks from 160001 in 1933 to 693001–696000 in 1948, 46,747 lenses in all, with the earliest 1930–32 lenses numbered in the general sequence and uncounted; a Luftwaffen-Eigentum block (555501–556000) and an SS Bildberichterstatter block (557001–558000) in 1940; a block of 5,000 at 566501 in 1941; coated after 1946. Codes LEDTF (1930), EKURZ, EKURZUP, EKURZCHROM; 112 g; A36; hoods FLQOO, FISON, IROOA; six blades; 64°.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • Engraved Elmar; the code name EKURZ and the word Weitwinkel — wide angle — appear in Leitz's catalogues
  • The apertures are marked f/4.5, 6.3, 9, 12.5, 18 — the old continental series, not the modern one

11 o'clock and 7 o'clock infinity locks:

  • The lock position moves from 11 o'clock to 7 o'clock during the run, as on the 50mm Elmar

Military marked:

  • Luftwaffen-Eigentum, or SS Bildberichterstatter — SS war correspondent issue

Serial-range notes

100000–840000
The rule for dating any Leitz lens of this era is to read its serial against the general year list, which runs continuously across every model. The bands covering this lens are 100000–135000 (1931), 135001–156000 (1932), 156001–195000 (1933), 195001–236000 (1934), 236001–284600 (1935), 284601–345000 (1936), 345001–416500 (1937), 416501–490000 (1938), 490001–538500 (1939), 538501–565000 (1940), 565001–582294 (1941), 582295–593000 (1942), 593001–594880 (1943), 594881–595000 (1944), 595001–601000 (1945), 601001–633000 (1946), 633001–647000 (1947), 647001–682000 (1948), 682001–756000 (1949) and 756001–840000 (1950). The Leica Wiki's own table for this model then narrows the answer to a block of a few hundred or a few thousand. The two lists agree for every block of this lens but two.
160001–161000 and 171001–172000
The only blocks the table marks KUP — nickel — on their own, both 1933. The three blocks marked KUP+CHROM (236101–237000, 251501–253000 and 270005–272000, all 1935) mix the two finishes and cannot settle a single lens either way.
182001–183000
The first block marked CHROM, and dated 1933 — the same year as the last nickel-only blocks. The two finishes overlap in production rather than succeeding one another.
555501–556000
The Luftwaffe block: 500 lenses, 1940, marked Luftwaffen-CHROM. Serial 555686, the Luftwaffen-Eigentum lens sold at Leitz Photographica Auction 7 with a photocopy of the Leitz salesbook entry recording delivery on 19 November 1940, falls inside it — so the block, the general year list and the delivery document agree to the year.
557001–558000
1,000 lenses, 1940, marked CHROM+SS: the one place in the table where the SS Bildberichterstatter marking is accounted for. An SS-engraved lens outside this block is unexplained by the table.
492101–495000
Dated 1938 by the model table, but the general year list starts 1939 at 490001, which puts the whole block on the 1939 side. One of only two blocks of this lens where the two lists disagree.
693001–696000
Dated 1948 by the model table, but the general year list starts 1949 at 682001. The other of the two.
566501–567000
A block spanning 500 serial numbers whose total column reads 5,000. The discrepancy is load-bearing: the table's totals sum to exactly 46,747, the production figure quoted for the lens as a whole, and reach it only because this row contributes 5,000. Counted at the 500 its own serial span allows, the enumerated lenses come to 42,247.

Specifications

Formula
Four elements in three groups
Construction
4 elements / 3 groups
Aperture range
f/3.5–f/18
Diaphragm blades
6
Min. focus
1 m
Filter
36 mm
Years manufactured
1930–1950
Country
Germany
Coating
Uncoated until 1946; coated after

What reviewers say

History

The 3.5cm Elmar is the Leica’s first wide-angle and the lens that made the Model C’s interchangeable mount worth having. Four elements in three groups again — Berek’s formula scaled down — at f/3.5, with 46,747 or more built over twenty years.

Its aperture scale is a small piece of history in itself: f/4.5, 6.3, 9, 12.5, 18, the old continental series based on doubling the light rather than the modern f/4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16. A photographer moving between this lens and a post-war one is changing arithmetic as well as focal length.

It carries the same identification marks as the 50mm Elmar — nickel then chrome, the infinity lock moving from 11 o’clock to 7 — and coating arrives in 1946. And it carries the war: some are engraved Luftwaffen-Eigentum, and some SS Bildberichterstatter, the marking of an SS war correspondent’s equipment. The second is rarer, worth more, and the easiest thing in this catalog to forge onto an ordinary lens.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Elmar 3.5cm f/3.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $870 across 31 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $580–$1,500). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $870.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$870$580–$1,50031
2026-09-06$870$580–$1,50032

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 35 more listings

eBay links are affiliate links. If you buy through one, Glass Bodies earns a small commission from eBay at no cost to you. It does not change which listings appear, their prices or their order — those come from the search and the sort described above.

Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Elmar 3.5cm f/4.5 · Elmar 5cm f/3.5 · Summaron 3.5cm f/3.5

Sources (5)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.